During the Great Depression America faced severe economic challenges. Several factors contributed to the depression such as the Stock Market Crash of 1929, over speculation, and bank failures. The ensuing high unemployment, farm foreclosures and the Dust Bowl would only make its relentlessness worse.
Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal Programs sought to solve some of the problems that Americans were facing. The Social Security Act of 1935 was one of the lasting programs of FDRs Administration.
“An act to provide for the general welfare by establishing a system of Federal old-age benefits, and by enabling the several States to make more adequate provision for aged persons, blind persons, dependent and crippled children, maternal and child welfare, public health, and the administration of their unemployment compensation laws; to establish a Social Security Board; to raise revenue; and for other purposes.”
Roosevelt’s programs could be categorized under Relief, Recovery and Reform. Social Security was a relief program. The Social Security Act provided relief by addressing the poverty among the elderly and disabled. It also encouraged states to provide matching benefits.
According the Social Security Administration History records, the first benefit was paid in 1940.
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